A Straits Settlement

by Brian Stoddart

Publisher:Crime Wave Press, Hong Kong

Year:​​2016

However, very happily, willingly, and bravely, but with total confidence in the book and its author, the

publisher agreed to my terms. These emphasised I’m my own koala, and I'll write whatever I bloody well want.

Good on yer, Crime Wave Press, that takes guts, and I approve.

Unputdownability Quotient: 9/10

You'll be VERY strongly tempted to read A Straits Settlement as quickly as possible - not because you want to finish it quickly, you won't, but because you'll want to know what happens to these very likeable characters. Sadly, despite wanting to spend more time with them, you'll find it necessary to read quickly and constantly. Oh, and I know "likeable" will be an offput for some of you. Your loss, I'm afraid.

“Nastiness” Factor: 0/10

While far from being a "cosy", unnecessary violence, blood & gore, or explicit sex, and particularly the ghastly combination of the three is not present. Bad luck for those who love Eric Lustbader novels, but good for those who don't want to read all about some author's violent sex fantasies.

Buy it or borrow it from your library. If you don’t, you’re missing out.

If you pirate it, you’re a turd.

Key Storyline Crimes

The apparently mysterious disappearance of a regional white magistrate in 1920s colonial India.

The murder of a young white man with a very surprising background.

Themes

These include:

racism;

imperialism and related colonialism;

the occupiers’ hidebound refusal to change;

Indian nationalism;

staff and change management;

the perils of love;

﻿the perils of war; and

﻿social stratification –

# among the British, # among the Indians, and # between the British and the Indians.

Protagonist​The protagonist is Chris Le Fanu, the Acting Inspector-General of Police in Madras.

Le Fanu, who prefers LF, has a couple of characteristics that help to humanise him from being "too good to be true":

his fear of speaking face-to-face with his partner (or is it former partner?) Ro;

his post-traumatic stress disorder; and

his pre-war failed marriage.

LF also:

wants to marry Ro, despite the very strong white prohibition on miscegenation, even with a woman of mixed-race;

is anti-racist;

is a follower of modern (at the time) detecting and forensic practices;

empathises and sympathises with the Indians;

is bitterly opposed to the hidebound policies of the old-school colonists;

makes his views on people and policies very clear;

has supporters in the most senior ranks of the British administration;

is a great staff manager; and

is a champion golfer.

LF’s attitude towards humanity is pretty much summed up here:

“He [LF] still resented the fact that an Indian constable opened the rear door of the car and saluted his entrance. That protocol deliberately separated ruler from ruled.” (A Straits Settlement, p 26 – not that page numbers mean anything when taken from an e-book!).

In fact, he could almost be me. Well ... almost. Oh, all right, he's nothing like me in almost every respect except for his social and political views.

The author

Background

Brian Stoddart’s a Kiwi, currently living in New Zealand.

Brian has had a lengthy career as an academic historian and academic administrator, mostly in Australia where he rose to the giddy heights of acting Vice Chancellor of Melbourne's La Trobe University. He's now "retired" (like me!) as an Emeritus Professor (very much unlike me!), is the chair of Sydney's private university, the TOP Education Institute, and is a member of Melbourne University's Australia India Institute.

Brian has principally been a sports historian, and has published several books in that field. However, due to his interest in India he has also written about several aspects of Indian History, including the water system in Andhra Pradesh.

He has written other works as well, including a 2012 book on Damascus (A House in Damascus, written consequent to his work there on a consultancy, fortunately prior to the current ghastly conflagration).

And, of course, he has written the previous two Le Fanu novels (A Madras Miasma & The Pallampur Predicament).

Brian’s also an online blogger and writer in various publications, such as Tehelka, Times of India, Financial Times, Outlook India and the Global Policy Journal (http://www.globalpolicyjournal.com) and South Asia Masala (Australian National University’s journal on various current, Indian, and global events - http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs). His commentary is well worth a read.

More of his views and opinions can be found on his twitter feed (@BrianStoddart).

Why Madras and Penang? And why the 1920s?

Penang first – Brian spent three years there in the 1990s on an educational reform consultancy project.

His interest in Madras and the 1920s go back to 1972. Brian travelled to Madras to research his PhD on Indian nationalism in the Madras Presidency during the Inter-war years.

Brian’s Madras experience appears to have been a case of love at first sight, and he’s revisited often since.

Brian had access to the Madras archives, and met a string of fascinating people.

One of Brian’s landlords was a former 1930s police officer, with whom Brian conversed about his experiences.

Brian has had a lifelong interest in crime fiction. So, slowly but surely, out came the 1920s Madras police officer, Christopher Le Fanu.

Type, Time & Place

A historical police procedural principally set in 1920s Madras, India, but also including Penang, in what is now Malaysia.

Series

3rd in a Series of Le Fanu novels (the other two are A Madras Miasma & The Pallampur Predicament).

Very easily read on its own, as I did - but buy the other two anyway. I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

Hot Diggeties

Really good points. There are quite a few, but just a couple off the top of my mind:

LF is a very engaging character.

The description of Jepson, LF's much detested boss, and his finagling to get back into his old job is very well and, I suspect, knowledgeably done.

The storylines successfully keep us guessing, wondering, and caring throughout the novel.

QuibblesAll right, so I liked the book. But, did I have any quibbles? Yes, a couple.

Were they important? No.

Did they distract from my reading or enjoyment of the book? No.

Well, what were they? No.

Eh? No. I’m not going into any detail about stuff that is unimportant.

Ifany of my quibbles were important I would tell you, but I have no intention of poking an author or a publisher in the eye for someone else's out-of-place interest, or from any desire to big note myself at their expense.

The point is, I don't believe there are any negatives that will impinge on your enjoyment of what is, after all, a good book.

If you do come across any problems, you might consider whether, after all, they're actually important, or the fault is yours for getting peeved about something that's unimportant. And, of course, it would never be my fault ... ummm ... because I'm not a rotten reviewer (!?).

His promotion to this position is amazingly unusual for an Indian in the British administration at this time.

Jackson Caldicott

Former English businessman and constant cricket fanatic.

Became a police officer after helping Le Fanu solve a crime.

Had been a spy behind German lines during World War 1.

Heads up the police force’s Special Branch.

Promoted by Le Fanu.

Jackson seems much too nice for this role, as, indeed, do the other intelligence agents appearing in Penang.

Sir Charles Whitney

Here’s one of Brian’s descriptions of LF’s immediate boss, the Chief Secretary to the Madras Presidency, and an issue that could be major for LF:

“There were rising rumours that the short, dapper, competent man would be swept off soon to a senior Government of India post in Delhi and that bothered Le Fanu, too. Whitney was a political conservative, but also the only realist left in senior ranks and one of Le Fanu’s few supporters. If Whitney went to Delhi his replacement would likely raise more professional challenges for the now struggling as well as Acting Inspector-General.” (p14)

Whitney being a “realist” means he recognised traditional British approaches to ruling India were no longer working, and new ways were necessary.

These “ways” included new approaches to crime, which brought LF to his attention.

At the time LF “knew” him he had already served as Governor of Bombay.

Willingdon is a supporter of LF’s, if for no other reason than LF had helped out in a family crisis.

Oh, Willingdon wasn't a marquess at the time LF knew him, but apparently no-one has been made a marquess since him. Not bad for a bloke who was born plain old Freeman Thomas.

Mind you, his mother was an aristocrat and he went to Eton and he married another aristocrat. He added the extra "Freeman-" the same year he married.

I wonder if I had called myself grizzly grizzly-bear007 I would've been made a Marquess? I hope not. I always though a Marquess was the female version of Marquis, but it seems I was wrong. Well, I guess it's got to happen sometimes.

And "Willingdon?" Well, that was the name of his title when he was made a baron. Apparently "baron" is at the bottom of the aristocratic titles enabling one to be called "Lord". And I presume "Marquess" is at the top. Or maybe that's the Queen, or King in Willingdon's time.

I wonder, though. Can we really trust a bloke who keeps changing his name? I wonder what coppers like LF thought of that? Yeah, okay, nothing, I know. Just a point. Okay, not worth making. Maybe I'll delete it. Or not ... hmmm. At least it's evened up my columns! Almost.

Location

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